Facial Aesthetic Surgery

Overview

Facial aesthetic surgery is used to help people who want to restore their face to a more youthful contour. As we age, facial tissue that was more prominent higher on the face begins to descend with gravity, creating sallow cheeks, folds around the nose and some jowling. To restore the face to a more youthful appearance a plastic surgeon reshapes the face by restoring volume and removing excess tissue in various areas of the face, primarily the cheeks.

Procedural Details

The traditional face lift surgery involves making an incision along the front of the ear and around towards the back and into the hairline. Through these incisions, the surgeon will free the skin from underlying tissue and undermine all the skin in the cheek area to the nasal labial fold and down along the chin. He will then reposition the skin and tissue to a higher plane in the face to restore volume to the cheek area and to tighten any sagging skin. If the neck also needs to be restored to a youthful contour, the surgeon dissects the platysma muscle and tightens that muscle as well. The surgeon performs the reshaping of the face one side at a time.

After reshaping the face and neck, the surgeon pulls the skin up and back and removes any excess skin. The surgeon leaves a little drain in place to help drain excess fluid in the tissues and removes it the next day. The surgery usually takes about four hours. Typically, you spend one night in the hospital and go home the next day. Total recovery from the surgery is about two weeks.

After surgery, your face may be swollen for several weeks. The majority of the swelling will be gone after that time, but there still may be some subtle traces of swelling. Cold compresses can be used to keep the swelling down. There may also be some bruising that may take several weeks to resolve. If you have high-blood pressure, you definitely want to keep that under control to minimize any risk of bleeding.